Thousands of LGBT rights advocates to convene in Atlanta next month to strategize and organize for the year ahead

Thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocates to convene in Atlanta next month to strategize and organize for the year ahead

The 25th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, the nation's largest annual gathering of LGBT rights activists and allies, will take place in Atlanta, Ga., on Jan. 23-27, 2013

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 — More than 3,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates from across the country will converge in Atlanta, Ga., on Jan. 23-27 for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.

This marks the 25th Creating Change conference, which has grown into the country's largest and most important convening of LGBT activists and allies in the country. They come together from every corner of the nation to strategize just following the presidential inauguration and to learn how to build political power back home.

The conference kicks off with pre-conference daylong institutes on Wednesday, Jan. 23, and Thursday, Jan. 24. This year, on our institute program for the first time there will be the Latino Institute, the Human Rights Institute, and Funding our Collective Liberation Institute. Other institutes will focus on racial justice, transgender rights, LGBT elders, faith, youth and more.

"At a decisive time in the struggle for LGBT rights, activists from all over the country will convene to continue to mobilize and strategize. The movement for equality is making great strides, as we saw with the sweeping marriage victories on Nov. 6, but there is much more left to do — from securing protections against discrimination, to fighting HIV/AIDS and anti-LGBT violence, to securing racial and economic justice for all," says Sue Hyde, Creating Change director. "We will continue to work harder than ever with local partners in communities across the country to secure full equality for all."

On opening night, Thursday, Jan. 24, Center for Community Change Executive Director Deepak Bhargava will address the conference. On Jan. 25, Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey will deliver the annual "State of the Movement" address. On Jan. 26, José Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and openly gay immigration activist, headlines a plenary session on immigration issues where he engages a panel of LGBT DREAM Act organizers. Songbird Frenchie Davis, a Grammy-nominated artist who competed on American Idol and The Voice, will perform at the closing plenary on Jan. 27. All plenary sessions will be emceed by comic and social commentator Kate Clinton.

The National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change also features hundreds of skills-building workshops, more than 15 additional daylong institutes, receptions, caucuses, networking sessions, interfaith services and much more.